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Literacy situation in Bangladesh
Samir Ranjan Nath
THE theme of this year's Education Watch is literacy. The specific aims are to estimate the proportions of the population that are at various levels of literacy, how literacy has been acquired, what uses are being made of it, and what the perceived expectations in postliteracy activities are. The socioeconomic correlates of literacy have also been estimated.
Major Findings
The literacy test revealed that 41.4 percent of the population 11 years and above in Bangladesh are literate 21 percent at the level of initial literacy skills and 20.4 percent with advanced literacy skills (Figure 1). Of the respondents under literacy test, about a half (49.3 percent) did very poorly (receiving less than a quarter of the total score) and were categorised as non-literate. Another 9.3 percent were semi-literate indicating that these people did not cross the threshold of minimum acceptable level of skills to be qualified as literate. People in the category of the non-literate and semi-literate did not have literacy skills that were useable in any practical way in life situations.
It is estimated that the population of Bangladesh 11 years and above is 92.8 million. The numbers falling into various literacy categories are as follows: 45.8 million non-literate, 8.6 million semi-literate, 19.5 million literate at the initial level, and 18.9 million literate at the advanced level.
The females lagged 12 percentage points behind the males in the literacy league table; the rates were 35.6 percent for the females and 47.6 percent for the males. Only 13.3 percent of the females and 28.1 percent of the males had advanced level literacy skills. The literacy rates for rural and urban respondents were 37.2 percent and 63.6 percent with a difference of 26 percentage points. Such gap was seen both at the initial and the advanced level. A wide gap in the literacy performance of the respondents of different stratum was found. The respondents of the metropolitan cities did very well followed by those of municipalities, the rates were 69.5 percent and 59 percent respectively. Only a third of the respondents of rural Dhaka,
Chittagong and Sylhet divisions were literate (Table 1). Less than a fifth (19.7 percent) of the urban slum residents were literate. The literacy rate of the adult (population 15 years and above) was found to be 38.8 percent at the national level 2.6 percentage
points less than the literacy rate for population 11 years and above. The females lagged behind the males in all the eight strata (six rural divisions, metropolitan cities and municipalities).
Parental education, especially of the mothers, religious affilia-
tion, occupation and income, access to communications media, and community infrastructure had strong correlation with the literacy situation of the population. Three quarters of the people whose mothers have some education (classes I to V) were literate, whereas 70 percent of those whose mothers have no education were illiterate. Thirty eight percent of the households in the country have no literate person; in fourteen percent of the households all members are literate.
Primary education was found to be the principal means of acquiring literacy. However, even after five years of primary education, one-third of the children remain illiterate. This is a very serious indictment of the quality of primary education. Although it is expected that three years of schooling should be enough for achieving sustainable literacy skills, it is not the case for Bangladesh. The literacy rate was only 30.4 percent among those with three years of schooling. Nonformal primary
schools were found to be more effective than the state owned as well as state-supported primary schools. It was found that six to seven years of schooling with present standard is required to achieve a sustainable literacy status for 80 percent of the population. It was observed that exclusively non-school means of education including the Total Literacy Movement (TLM), and learning at home have a minor impact on overall literacy situation in the country. The literacy rate was 42.1 percent in the TLM implemented
communities and 40.6 percent in other areas. The literacy rate for 11-45 years age-group, which is the main targeted age-group for TLM, showed practically no difference between the rate in TLM communities and the national rate for this age-group.
Major uses of literacy skills, as expressed by the respondents, were personal written communication, reading documents and
helping children in study. A good number of the literates also used their literacy skills to read books, newspapers and magazines for information and enjoyment, and in
occupations and workplaces. Majority of the literates perceived the need for training for occupational skills development. Special programmes for women and community education centres were demanded by about half of the literates.
Research Method and Quality of Data
Definition and test development: The Education Watch research team reviewed the
literacy definitions used for literacy nationally and internationally. It also examined existing curriculum of formal and non-formal provisions, and considered the sociocultural context of the country and its current development stage. The research team agreed that proper importance should be given to functionality and effectiveness of literacy skills and their use in the community. The following definition of literacy was adopted for this study: Possession of skills in reading, writing and numeracy related to familiar contents and contexts and the ability to use these skills in everyday life in order to function effectively in society.
For the first time in Bangladesh, literacy situation in the country was assessed through administering a literacy test on a nationwide representative sample of population 11 years and above in contrast to the 'self reporting' method used in the population censuses and household surveys. Based on the above definition, a purposefully designed test
instrument was developed through a pilot study. The test consisted of four essential skill components of literacy reading, writing, numeracy and use of
these three skills in practical life situations. A total of 24 question items were in the test, six for each component.
Measuring literacy: Recognising the continuum of literacy skills and taking a pragmatic approach to conducting the assessment and to communicating the results in a policy relevant language, it was decided to categories the population into four levels, viz., non-literate, semiliterate, literate at the initial level and literate at the advanced level. Total score of the literacy test was 100, equally distributed by skill components. The test instrument was designed in such a way that those falling in the category of literate at the initial level and literate at the advanced level could be designated as literate. Besides the literacy test instrument, three other questionnaires were used to collect demographic, educational, socioeconomic and community information of the respondents.
Sampling: The sampling strategy of the study was designed scientifically, which allowed valid and reliable estimates for six administrative divisions, metropolitan cities, and the municipalities. A total of 13,145 persons aged 11 years and above taken from 3,840 households of 268 villages/mahallahas in 64 districts were given the literacy test. Over 100 research assistants, half of them female, administered the test and collected necessary information.
Data quality: A strict quality control protocol was applied to collecting and recording the data, assessing responses to the literacy test, and analysing all data.
Assessment of quality of data through postenumeration check revealed that data quality was good and the reliability coefficient of the test data was high.
The Education Watch study assessed literacy status of the population through administering a literacy test on a nation-wide sample survey. Such an initiative is first of its kind in Bangladesh. It is expected that it would end the confusion about literacy rates in the country and will establish the benchmarks for literacy rates. It is also hoped that the results of the study will be used to shape a new vision and develop future plans for literacy, continuing education and lifelong learning.
Mr. Nath led the literacy survey team and is a coauthor of the Education Watch 2002 Report Literacy in Bangladesh: Need for a New Vision.